Rosa Multiflora
by faux nostalgia
Summary: It is against regulations for a shinobi to show any weakness or emotions. Sasuke wonders just who it was that truly died. NaruSasu.


©Kishimoto Owns Naruto. "Wither" lyrics by ReS.

Warning: shounen-ai, , angst

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† **R**osa **M**ultiflora †  
_It is against the regulations for a shinobi to show any weakness or emotions.  
Sasuke wonders just who it was that truly died._

SasuNaru Fanfiction© written by faux nostalgia

* * *

**Even consciousness ends  
and turns to ash  
I spin memories  
of my short life**

**- **

For as long as he remembered, from the day he started school to the day he learned how to walk, he was given piles of presents on occasions there were that existed. When he was a child, he generally received gifts from his relatives. Of course, he had already thrown them all out by the time he was too old to play with them -- especially after his parents passed away. His emotions, as well.

When school started and students immediately noticed him the moment his stepped into the classroom, girls showered him with gifts of adoration, while boys offered him their mutual friendship, just to be popular.

_...Disgusting._

_- _

**That is falling to ruin,  
and returning to the ground**  
**I cry in these moments foolishly,  
until my voice withers**

**- **

It doesn't matter what the event is, as long as they could give him 'love'. He doesn't care for he has stopped celebrating anything. The only gift he will accept more than anything is Power... and nobody in Konoha was able to grant him that.

He doesn't want to work on getting it little by little. He merely craves it to destroy his brother. Simply crave it to destroy the weakness inside him the moment he realizes that he acknowledges his teammates. They are a hindrance and any type of components other than Power should be destroyed.

So, bit by bit, he crushed their trust and manipulated their minds. He doesn't need anybody. He doesn't need gifts to be happy.

Great Power is all he need; and he got it, after paying a price.

-

**Suffering in the flames,  
carrying this pain**  
**Into the  
severe future...**

**- **

It was then that, seven years after his betrayal and confinement within a small domicile—stripped of everything he had gained fairly and unfairly, and sentence to death if tempted assassination again—that everyone has stopped giving him anything.

Love, kindness, presents, trust, and acknowledgment. Just... given up looking at him with a recognized stare.

He doesn't get out. He doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep or communicate. Whether it is a regulation, it didn't matter. He has no use for conveying with others anymore. His reason for living is finished.

Uchiha Itachi is dead... therefore Uchiha Sasuke has died as well.

Valentine's Day, New Year's... Christmas... events after events, and all he got is mourning. All he gets are tears of disappointment.

_"What have we done to make him like this?"_

_"Should we have paid more attention?"_

_"Why, Sasuke-kun... why?"_

Yet within those crowded stares of slow high hopes, there is one person that bothers with him.

-

**The tears come back to me,  
watering the solitary  
artificial flower**

**How many times do I have to scream?**

**- **

A wide grin on the face, marred cheeks, and blindingly bleach-colored hair stands his way in the dark night. It's fake, but it's there. Someone who is brave enough to false a happy look in front of Uchiha 'Sasuke'. Seven years of days and nights, he communicates with the other with whatever they have and need.

"Ne, Sasuke."_—say something!_

Like a talk.

"You better sleep tonight, bastard. I ain't coming back here finding you staring at nothing again."—_but I still come._

Or a touch.

"I don't wanna have to force you to sleep."—_but don't keep them close forever._

And a companion.

"Got that, Sasuke-teme?"

He doesn't need these anymore.

But Naruto does.

Naruto still thinks that if he fakes the him who he was a long time ago, Sasuke would come back. Grin, glare, and laugh like a fool. Therefore... Naruto sought him when he needed him.

-

**My right arm is burnt  
and continues to melt**  
**The pain intensifies,  
and I return to that day**

**- **

"Sasuke?"

Naruto comes to him when he needs to talk to someone.

"Sasuke."

Naruto comes to him when he wants to touch and feel again.

"Where is _Sasuke_, Uchiha Sasuke?"

But it isn't love.

"Tell me, Uchiha. Where did _Sasuke_ go?"

Because Uchiha 'Sasuke' does not need it anymore.

_Sasuke is already dead, Uzumaki._

_- _

**My thoughts were colored by cruelty.  
For this, I burn.**

**- **

But in every special occasions there has been for the past seven years, only Uzumaki Naruto sends him presents. Each different events, it was always the same thing. At day time, Uzumaki Naruto is himself.

He blinds the whole village with his stupid grin, the one factor that inure his heart.

"Spar with me."

At night time, his eyes fade and he looks at the ground as he speaks. There is sadness in his voice, regardless of how empty they sound. It always happens when he is with Uchiha Sasuke. Because when Naruto talks, Uchiha does not talk back. When Naruto asks a question, Uchiha does not answer.

The thread that ties the team has broken and that is the only slim thread Naruto holds on to keep himself alive. It is the only piece of string he has to understand that what they had a long time ago was not meaningless.

"If I challenge you, would you accept?"

Naruto doesn't insult him anymore because he does not receive a comeback, and he knows that Naruto's insults are true.

"If I challenge you to another battle of death, will you dodge my strike, Sasuke?"

Day after day, words become useless and all there is are actions. Uchiha has stopped returning Naruto's touch. When he is touched on the face, he merely stares. When he is held by the hand, he does not entwine his fingers in return. He doesn't want to be alive anymore. But if Naruto keeps touching him, Sasuke is scared he may flinch. He is scared that if his hand is held again and again, he will respond to the warmth he has lost. He knows this, too, that Naruto is bound to give up soon before the real Sasuke opens his eyes.

"Sasuke might not be the one that'll die."

Naruto does not cry in front of him nor does he try and hurt him for it for he knows Sasuke will welcome death.

"I could die, too."

-

**Suffering in the flames,  
carrying the pain  
The cruel hearts are not saved...**

**- **

He has seen the blond break down. He has seen the familiar breaking of the heart within the wall he thought was strong enough to hold up the spirit. The breaking of someone who used to be. Uchiha does not care, because Sasuke is gone.

"Your blade that will be in my hands will make sure of that. So, you better go to sleep now, Sasuke... teme..."

Power has taken him over. It won't be long before the rotting snakes in his soul poisons his heart with their bites. He isn't complaining. He is already poisoned.

"Goodbye."

There is no more touch. Uzumaki Naruto leaves without a glance, fists clenched and throat constricted. Uchiha watches him with deadpan cursed red eyes. As he watches the fading shadow, all he sees is death. This time, Sasuke closes his eyes and sleeps, hoping he does not wake up soulless again, or simply not wake up at all.

-

**My thoughts were colored by cruelty.  
For this, I die.**

**- **

On the day of Valentine's day, the next day, Uchiha wakes up after a light tap of the sun's light through the glass. He looks at the window to see a ghostly figure that dissipate with the wind. If he looks closer, it is but the strong wind that slaps the glass. When he stands and marches over it, Naruto's present lay on the sill, small, but significant. He already knows why it is always a rose.

He takes the flower and holds it for a long time. When he holds it up towards the sky where the sunlight blinds the whole village, there is no shine. There is only the black illumination of the dying structure. Naruto tells him that each color is a symbol for who he is and what element he is best in.

The blond does not have to try hard to find the right color for him to give for the rest of his life. He knows Naruto is already gone.

The sudden recognition causes him to realize that his red eyes, which clears little by little each year, finally dulled into a vacant Sharingan, forever etched in omen.

Why does he fail to heal himself again?

Uchiha does not ask why he gives him a rose. Naruto will always send him a rose every holiday he has stopped celebrating. It is always black. And every next day, the blonde acts as if he has never given him the present.

He holds the dead rose gently, as he always does when he receives them. He opens the window wider and takes the dark head, pulling out all the petals into his palm, gently crushing them before letting them fly out the window.

There are no tears. But there is mourning. There is no desperate cry. But there is still words.

"You brought Sasuke back the moment you left... idiot."

He wonders how Naruto can sometimes be so impatient. There is never a chance for him. He is always too late for everything. But, they are even now, as well as dead.

-

**Suffering in the flames,  
carrying the pain**  
**The cruel hearts are not saved...**

**- **

Naruto can not hear him anymore. Pain is too overwhelming to feel. Hatred is too numbing to act out. Anger is too blinding to fully acknowledge. Happiness has already left before he could feel them again.

And Sasuke wonders just which of them truly died.

-

**Because of my cruelty, I suffer...  
****Because of my cruelty, I suffer...**

**  
Because of my cruelty, I suffer...**

**  
Because of my cruelty, I suffer...**

**  
_ Because of my cruelty..._**

**- **

**

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**

END


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